Validation of the Chinese Version of the Gamblers’ Belief Questionnaire (GBQ-C)

An Empirical Study of the Pathway Model Link Between Cognitive Distortions and Gambling Problems

This research empirically tests the relationship between gambling-related cognitive distortions and the development of gambling problems. In two separate studies using methodologies designed to support non-experimental causal inference, we demonstrate that holding false beliefs about gambling experiences is related to current and future risk of developing problems with gambling. In our first study, we use an instrumental variable estimation strategy on an internet sample (n = 184) and observe a statistically significant relationship between Gamblers' Belief Questionnaire scores and measures of loss chasing, overspending, and gambling problems. These findings were robust to linear and ordinal estimation strategies and multiple model specifications. In our second study, we examine five-year prospective longitudinal data (n = 1,431) to validate our initial findings and test whether irrational thoughts are also related to future problems with gambling. While controlling for current fallacies, we find that past Gambling Fallacies Measure scores are related to present gambling problems across two survey waves. The effect size of each of the past fallacy levels is roughly half of the effect size of present levels, suggesting meaningful impacts. Our findings support the Pathways Model of Problem and Pathological Gambling.

Psychometric Properties of the South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for Adolescents in Chinese Adolescent Gamblers

Objectives: Adolescent gambling is a public health concern of increasing importance. The lack of comprehensive evaluations on adolescent gambling disorder (GD) assessment tools hinders the timely detection of Chinese adolescents with gambling problems. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA) and determine its optimal screening cutoff score among Chinese adolescent gamblers to address this gap.

Methods: We surveyed 1407 Chinese secondary school students aged 11–19 years in Macao, China, among which 258 past-year gamblers’ data was used for assessing SOGS-RA’s performance in detecting risk for adolescent GD.

Results: SOGS-RA displayed satisfactory reliability and validity for assessing probable GD among Chinese adolescent gamblers. Under the DSM-5 GD framework, we proposed ≥4 as SOGS-RA’s optimal cutoff score of screening for probable GD and further identified 5.8% of past-year gamblers prone to probable GD in the present study.

Conclusion: SOGS-RA can provide a reliable and valid assessment of adolescent’ GD risk in the Chinese context, facilitate early identification of probable GD cases, and alleviate the public health concern for Chinese adolescents.

Validation of a Swedish translation of the gamblers’ beliefs questionnaire

The 20-item Gamblers’ Beliefs Questionnaire (GBQ) is used to identify cognitive distortions commonly had by gamblers. There is a great need for psychometrically validated instruments for both treatment and research purposes in the field of gambling addiction in Sweden. The purpose of this study was to validate a Swedish translation of the GBQ by assessing internal consistency, convergent validity, known-groups validity, the two-factor structure of the GBQ, and scaling success. The GBQ was translated into Swedish (GBQ-SE) and validated in a sample of 402 Swedish speaking women (47.9%) and men (52.1%) between 18–86 years, representing undergraduates, a working population, and people with current or historical gambling problems. The GBQ-SE showed excellent internal consistency and moderate relationships with instruments of problem gambling severity. We also showed that problem gamblers tend to endorse more gambling related distortions than non-problem gamblers by finding a significantly higher level of cognitive distortions in the problem gambler group. We were not able to confirm the two-factor structure in our sample. When assessing scaling success an overlap for eight of twenty of the items between the subscales was found. We conclude that the GBQ-SE is valid as a general instrument of gambling related cognitive distortions. It can be used to aid in treatment planning with gambling addicted clients, to evaluate treatment outcome, and for research purposes.

Predicting Gambling Propensity and Behavior: The Role of Social Axioms and Distortive Beliefs

Theory and research have revealed the impact of cognitive factors on propensity for gambling, but the role of generalized beliefs and their underlying mechanisms receive little attention. In the present research, we operationalized generalized beliefs as social axioms (Leung et al. in J Cross Cult Psychol 33:286-302, 2002) and tested how the axiom factors of fate control and social cynicism affected the likelihood to gamble in hypothetical scenarios (Study 1) and the actual behaviour of gambling (Study 2). In Study 1, we found that both fate control and social cynicism positively predicted the propensity to participate in horse betting and casino gambling among university students (n = 184). The effect of fate control was mediated by perceived benefit of gambling, whereas social cynicism affected gambling propensity directly. In Study 2, we showed the same effects of fate control and social cynicism on gambling frequency among at-risk adolescents (n = 547), and identified two types of gambling-related cognition (i.e., distortive gambling cognitions and attitudes towards money) as mediators. Overall, this research provided evidence for the importance of social beliefs in formulating specific gambling cognitions and gambling behaviours, shedding light on intervention strategies for helping frequent gamblers through altering their worldviews in general and risk-taking beliefs in particular.

An Assessment of the Validity of the Gamblers Belief Questionnaire

Cognitive distortions in gambling are irrational thoughts that cause an individual to overestimate their level of control over the outcome of the game and diminish the role of chance. Due to their strong relation to gambling disorders, they are a particularly important characteristic to assess and understand in gamblers. Although numerous measures of gambling-related cognitive distortions exist, studies assessing criterion validity are scarce. In this study, we develop several tests of the Gamblers Belief Questionnaire (GBQ), a versatile and widely used scale. A sample of 184 U.S. adults was recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete an online study that included measurement of the GBQ and an assessment of the perceived role of skill and chance in various gambling and non-gambling activities. In addition to a confirmatory factor analysis of the scale, three novel validation tests were developed to understand whether the GBQ subscales can identify and discriminate measures of illusion of control and gambler's fallacy distortions. Our validation tests demonstrate that the scale does measure both distortions, providing information about gamblers' cognition that is unexplained by gambling problems, frequency of play, and demographics. Conversely, our analysis of the factor structure does not show good fit. We conclude that the GBQ measures gambling-related cognitive distortions, but there may be an opportunity to reduce the number of scale items and further refine precision of the two subscales.

Kognitive Verzerrungen bei pathologischen Sportwettern im Vergleich mit Automatenspielern – eine Analyse unter Anwendung des Gamblers Beliefs Questionnaire

Zusammenfassung. Zielsetzung: Aus der internationalen Glücksspielforschung ist bekannt, dass kognitive Verzerrungen mit einer problematischen Glücksspielteilnahme in Beziehung stehen. Spezielle Spielergruppen, die sich nach ihrer favorisierten Glücksspielart unterscheiden, standen dabei bisher jedoch selten im Fokus wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen. In dieser Studie werden erstmals die kognitiven Verzerrungen bei pathologischen Automatenspielern und Sportwettern dargestellt und in Form eines Gruppenvergleichs analysiert und diskutiert. Methodik: Es werden die Ergebnisse einer (schriftlichen) Befragung von 72 Automatenspielern und 37 Sportwettern dargestellt. Die befragten Personen erfüllen mindestens 5 Kriterien nach DSM-IV. Die Erfassung der kognitiven Erfahrungen erfolgt unter Anwendung des Gamblers Beliefs Questionaire (GBQ). Dieses Instrument beinhaltet zwei Subskalen, die zwischen den Bereichen „Luck/Perseverance“ (Glaube an das persönliche Glück beim Spielen/irrationale Überzeugungen) und „Illusion of control“ (Glaube, den Ausgang des Spiels beeinflussen zu können) differenzieren. Zudem kann der Gesamtscore (Summe aus den Werten der beiden Subskalen) berichtet werden. Für die Prüfung der statistischen Bedeutsamkeit von Unterschieden zwischen beiden Spielergruppen kamen Chi-Quadrat-Tests (bei ordinal skalierten Variablen) oder Varianzanalysen (bei metrischen Variablen) zur Anwendung. Ergebnisse: Die Sportwetter kommen auf einen signifikant höheren Gesamtscore als die Automatenspieler (96,0 zu 81,4), d. h. die kognitiven Verzerrungen sind bei ihnen deutlich ausgeprägter als bei der zweitgenannten Gruppe. Bezogen auf die beiden Sub-Skalen des GBQ ergeben sich sowohl beim persönlichen Glauben an das Glück (56,9 zu 50,7) als auch bei den Kontroll-Illusionen (39,2 zu 30,7) höhere Werte bei den Sportwettern. Schlussfolgerungen: In der Behandlung der Glücksspielsucht sollte die therapeutische Aufarbeitung von kognitiven Verzerrungen eine bedeutsame Rolle spielen. Das gilt insbesondere für pathologische Sportwetter. Gleichfalls sollten präventive Interventionen durchgeführt werden, mit denen der Entstehung von Trugschlüssen über das Glücksspiel und Kontroll-Illusionen vorgebeugt wird.

Reliability of Instruments Measuring At-Risk and Problem Gambling Among Young Individuals: A Systematic Review Covering Years 2009-2015

This review aims to clarify which instruments measuring at-risk and problem gambling (ARPG) among youth are reliable and valid in light of reported estimates of internal consistency, classification accuracy, and psychometric properties. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Medline, and PsycInfo covering the years 2009-2015. In total, 50 original research articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria: target age under 29 years, using an instrument designed for youth, and reporting a reliability estimate. Articles were evaluated with the revised Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool. Reliability estimates were reported for five ARPG instruments. Most studies (66%) evaluated the South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for Adolescents. The Gambling Addictive Behavior Scale for Adolescents was the only novel instrument. In general, the evaluation of instrument reliability was superficial. Despite its rare use, the Canadian Adolescent Gambling Inventory (CAGI) had a strong theoretical and methodological base. The Gambling Addictive Behavior Scale for Adolescents and the CAGI were the only instruments originally developed for youth. All studies, except the CAGI study, were population based. ARPG instruments for youth have not been rigorously evaluated yet. Further research is needed especially concerning instruments designed for clinical use.

Adaptation study of the Turkish version of the Gambling-Related Cognitions Scale (GRCS-T)

This study aimed to adapt and to test the validity and the reliability of the Turkish version of the Gambling-Related Cognitions Scale (GRCS-T) that was developed by Raylu and Oei (Addiction 99(6):757-769, 2004a). The significance of erroneous cognitions in the development and the maintenance of gambling problems, the importance of promoting gambling research in different cultures, and the limited information about the gambling individuals in Turkey due to limited gambling research interest inspired the present study. The sample consisted of 354 voluntary male participants who were above age 17 and betting on sports and horse races selected through convenience sampling in betting terminals. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis following the original scale's five factor structure indicated a good fit for the data. The analyses were carried out with 21 items due to relatively inadequate psychometric properties of two GRCS-T items. Correlational analyses and group comparison tests supported the concurrent and the criterion validity of the GRCS-T. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole scale was 0.84 whereas the coefficients ranged between 0.52 and 0.78 for the subscales of GRCS-T. The findings suggesting that GRCS-T is a valid and reliable instrument to identify gambling cognitions in Turkish samples are discussed considering the possible influence of the sample make-up and cultural texture within the limitations of the present study and in the light of the relevant literature.

Psychometric evaluation of the Gamblers' Beliefs Questionnaire with treatment-seeking disordered gamblers

Growing evidence for the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy for disordered gambling supports the need for a comprehensive set of gambling-related assessment measures that have been validated with treatment-seeking samples. The Gamblers' Beliefs Questionnaire (GBQ) is a self-report measure that was designed to identify gambling-related cognitive distortions (Steenbergh, Meyers, May, & Whelan, 2002). In this study, the GBQ demonstrated good internal consistency and adequate construct validity in a treatment-seeking sample of disordered gamblers. Additionally, scores on the measure significantly decreased across a brief cognitive-behavioral treatment, providing validity support for use of the GBQ with a clinical population.